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Simple to enter Unicode character that would sort after Z in most cases?

As you probably know most symbols are sorted before the alphabetical letters.

I am looking for one character that is easy to enter from the keyboard that would be sorted after "z" by most sort implementations.

If this is also an ASCII character, the better :)

Any ideas?

like image 789
sorin Avatar asked Jun 23 '13 19:06

sorin


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4 Answers

On a Mac, these are the only characters I can type using a US keyboard (with and without shift and option modifiers) that sort below Z and z:

  • Ω (option+z)
  • π (option+p)
  • µ (option+m)
  •  (shift+option+k)

It seems like omega and then pi are the best options for cross-platform compatibility.

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Dave C Avatar answered Oct 21 '22 23:10

Dave C


A Tilde '~' is ASCII code 126.

This comes after all the standard English usage characters and would therefore out-sort a 'Z' of any case.

It would not out-sort other special characters, however ASCII or unicode sequencing is not sufficient to cover international sorts in any context.

Example: internationisation in javascript

like image 30
Peregrine Avatar answered Oct 21 '22 22:10

Peregrine


On Windows, none of these options work because they all sort before A.

A solution I ended up using is an Arabic character:

ٴ This folder comes after z in windows

Source

like image 23
degenerate Avatar answered Oct 21 '22 22:10

degenerate


The answers provided here that worked for me:

  • Ξ _Greek capital letter XI (per tonystar's answer);
  • π _Greek small letter PI (per DaveC's answer);
  • Ω _Greek capital letter OMEGA (per DaveC's answer);
  • µ _international symbol for micrometre, previously and AKA micron (per DaveC's answer);
  • ٴ _Arabic letter ٴ(unidentified) (per degenerate's answer);
  • ﻩ _Arabic letter HEH isolated form (per Bytee's answer);

Notes:

  • using macOS 10.14.2.
  • a tilde ~ always displays before numbers in an ascending sort.

In macOS Numbers (spreadsheet) app, sort (ascending) displays as follows:

  • 0
  • 9
  • a
  • z
  • µ
  • Ξ
  • π
  • Ω
  • ٴ

Perhaps worth mentioning that the last two Arabic letters ٴ (unknown) and ﻩ (HEH) are difficult to edit (not as expected) in Numbers.


In macOS Finder, sort (ascending) displays as follows:

  • ٴ (appears as a narrow 'blank' space at the beginning of the file name)
  • 0
  • 9
  • a
  • z
  • µ
  • Ξ
  • π
  • Ω
  • ﻩ (appears at the end of the file name in display, at the beginning during edit)
like image 12
andrewbuilder Avatar answered Oct 21 '22 21:10

andrewbuilder